Nokia 5800 Cell Phone Review - Messaging

The 5800 is very capable in terms of messaging, offering Microsoft Exchange Server compatibility and the ability to handle multiple accounts at once. The messaging interface isn't the neatest or most intuitive, but it is still quite functional. As usual with Nokia S60 devices we've seen, emoticons are still missing, but these aren't essential to keeping up with your email and SMS/MMS messages.

Supported Email Services (8.0)
The 5800 supports both POP3 and IMAP4 protocols and also offers easy set-up for accounts with popular email services, including GMail, AOL mail, and Yahoo, so you do not need to enter any server settings to get started using email.

Push Email (3.0)
The 5800 is also compatible with Microsoft Exchange Server, making it able to handle push email. In order to take advantage of this feature, you must first set up your Mail for Exchange profile, which can be done in the MfE folder in the main menu. Until you do this, tapping on the Mail for Exchange option in the Messaging application's settings menu will yield no response whatsoever.

The 5800 is also compatible with Nokia's Ovi service to synchronize your PIM data and it includes a free email account, which can be configured to be pushed to your device – a nice bonus for a free service indeed.

Multiple Email Accounts (10.0)
The 5800 easily handles multiple email accounts, showing no issues with the 5 test accounts we set up on it. This puts the 5800 on par with every other one of our comparison smartphones, save the Samsung Memoir that did not have a native email application.

HTML and Attachments (0.0)
As with other S60 devices we've seen, the 5800 cannot render HTML emails in the email application. Instead, HTML is shown as an attachment to the email where tapping on it will open it in the web browser instead. Since it lacks an application to view or edit Microsoft Office documents, the 5800 was unable to do anything with the test Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word attachments we tried to view, showing only an "Unable to open. Object type is not supported." error when we tried. The text PDF and ZIP attachments were similarly un-viewable.  This puts the 5800 behind almost all our comparison devices, except the Samsung Memoir, which were all able to do something with the test attachments and appropriately show HTML emails.

As an S60 smartphone, 3rd-party applications are available to enable this functionality on the 5800, but we only award points for out-of-the-box functionality.

Email Customizations (4.0)
Here, we consider the customizations available to change the email application's interface, such as changing fonts, font sizes and colors, and how emails are viewed. The 5800's messaging application allows you to change the font size between 3 choices for the entire interface including composed emails, though you cannot change the font itself or font colors for any part of the interface separately or for messages you compose. You can specify a signature for each email account that will be automatically attached to each outgoing message. This level of customization isn't that extensive, though it beats out the Blackberry Storm and the HTC Touch Diamond in this area, but is still behind the iPhone 3G.

Time to a New Email Message (4.35)
Though there's no shortcut on the home screen by default to get to a new email message quickly, it doesn't take too long to get there on the 5800, averaging 4.6 seconds to go from the home screen to the moment a new email dialogue is up. Comparatively, this time is a little slow when considering the average 2.75 seconds for the Blackberry Storm and the 2.8 seconds on the Apple iPhone 3G to accomplish this same task. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Email Usability (6.0)
The 5800 has the standard email interface we're used to seeing on S60 devices, which we generally find to be about average compared to other devices, with only a few minor changes.

The main view in the Messaging application

The Messaging application's main view shows you list, accompanied by cute little envelope icons, of all of the email accounts you have set up as well as the standard folders for your SMS/MMS messages. With this touch interface, you'll have to do all your scrolling with your finger using the scroll bar on the right side rather than rely on a D-pad to get you around. As we found in the photo album software, tapping on an item on this list doesn't open it up, but simply highlights it so you can opt to do something via the Options menu. If you want to open something, you'll have to double-tap, which we still find to be unintuitive in a touch interface.

An individual email inbox

When you open an email inbox, you see a list of received emails, though they can be hidden under Last Week and Older headings, which can be expanded with a tap. Shortcuts at the bottom of the screen allow you to quickly forward a selected message, create a new message, or delete a message. The Options menu allows you to change the sorting method from the default Date method to by Sender or Subject.

You can quickly switch to a different inbox using the tabs that appear at the top of each email inbox. Unfortunately, these tabs are only labeled with an @ symbol, so you'll have to go through them one by one to find the desired mail box. These tabs also allow you to get to your SMS/MMS inbox, Outbox, and other folders.

Instant Messaging (0.0)
Although the 5800's user manual states that it has an IM application, one was not present on our 5800 out of the box and it earns no points in this area as a result.

MMS Support (8.5)
The 5800 is capable of sending and receiving MMS messages and it's easy to create one, even if you started out creating a standard text and changed your mind mid-stream. In the Messaging application, the default way to create an MMS is to add media to an SMS. The shortcut icon in the bottom right corner that shows a paper clip with a plus button brings up options to add an image, video clip, sound clip, new image, new video, new sound, a slide show, and much more to an MMS. This is very good integration with saved media combined with ease of use to create new media as you draft your MMS. Additionally, MMS messages share the inbox and other folders with your MMS messages, so there's no need to go hunting for them elsewhere.

Creating a new MMS message

Compared to the Blackberry Storm, the MMS creation process is much more streamlined on the 5800. For the moment, the 5800 comes out on top compared to the Apple iPhone 3G, which is unable to send and receive MMS messages, though the upcoming 3.0 firmware will add this functionality so the iPhone won't be out of the running for long in this area.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
The ability to show smiley faces, also called emoticons, as a graphic image is few and far between on smartphones, including the 5800. You won't be getting any cute images in received text images, nor can you send anything but the standard punctuation symbols that make up emoticons. Even adding punctuation to create such an emoticon is a painful process on the 5800. If you use the on-screen keyboard, the parentheses exist on a different view than the colon, semi-colon, and other punctuation marks. There is an Insert Symbol menu, but once you select the desired element, it closes again, making it impossible for you to create an emoticon that requires more than one punctuation mark without opening this menu separately for each one. What a pain!

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (6.0)
As we found on the Nokia N96, which has a very similar interface to that of the 5800, the combined interface for email and SMS/MMS isn't the most intuitive, though completely functional.

The SMS/MMS inbox

Unless you look closely, the icon for your SMS/MMS inbox looks very similar to the one used for your email accounts. Your SMS/MMS Sent, Drafts, and other folders are moved to the bottom of the list below the inboxes for your email accounts, making them harder to get to the more email accounts you have. Also, there's no threaded message view for SMS and MMS messages – if you're having a conversation with someone via text messaging and you've forgotten the contents of the last message you received, you'll have to look for it rather than simply seeing it in a threaded view as you'd find on the Apple iPhone 3G.

Time to a New SMS Message (4.19)
Getting to a new SMS dialogue on the 5800 is a snap since it's the first option at the top of the list in the main Messaging view, and it takes an average of 2.39 seconds.

A new SMS

Some of our comparison devices weren't far behind the 5800 in this test, taking only a few tenths of a second more time, but the 5800 is second only to the Samsung Memoir in this test. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

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